The German-born theoretical physicist whose special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915) overturned Newtonian mechanics and transformed the understanding of space, time, gravity, and the cosmos — making him the most recognizable scientist in history and a cultural symbol of intellectual genius.
In 1905, working as a patent clerk in Bern, Einstein published four papers that each would have made the career of any physicist. One established the reality of atoms. One explained the photoelectric effect and founded quantum theory. One created special relativity. One derived E=mc². He was 26. He had no academic position. He had access to no laboratory. He did it by thinking.